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Created by the talented [Link To User poulynoe]")  }   Hi EveryonePlease pray for our Brother (246) who is dealing with some health issues right now. He is going to take some time off to recuperate and then he will be back with those great prompts. Jesus told us in Luke 9:23 that we should "Take up" our "cross daily" and follow Him. Explain. Jesus is telling us in this passage that we must get up every morning and put on the mantle of Christianity. We must be willing to live in this sinful world without being a part of the sinful world. The forces of evil are all around us. Like a lion, Stan is always carefully watching his prey and he will pounce. There is no "maybe" to it. He will attack and we must not only prepare ourselves for those attacks but the people God has entrusted to our care must also be prepared. If God has not entrusted any people to our care and we are not new Christians, then shame on us. God loves multiplication and addition and He expects us to grow the kingdom. When we do grow the kingdom we must be willing to train and equip our converts for the attack that will come. Notice that I did not say the attack might come. I said it will come. Satan is simply waiting for the right opportunity to strike the fatal blow and take the new Christian or the old, weak Christian out of the kingdom. He will attack and it is our job to be ready for those attacks. Jesus said to "Take up your cross daily and follow me." Crosses to the audience listening to Jesus were not the dainty, pretty little pieces of jewelry we wear around our necks. They were instruments of death by cruel and unusual suffering. When Jesus said that to the disciples, the disciples knew He meant for them to be prepared to devote their entire lives to the kingdom, not just a few hours one day per week. Christianity is a lifestyle that requires the believer to work 24 hours per day, seven days per week for the kingdom. We Americans pride ourselves on being Americans. Well guess what? I am not an American any longer! My allegiance belongs to the Kingdom of Heaven and it is for that Kingdom that I must be prepared to fight and if necessary, to die! All too often Christians get saved and that is the end of their journey. They go to church regularly, participate in the worship, and then sit idle the rest of the week. They do not learn the scriptures well enough to defend the scriptures or explain them. They do not teach and minister to others. Instead they throw some money in the offering to pay the preacher who's job they believe is to evangelize and win souls. Wake Up Dreamers! The preacher's job is to feed your soul so that you can go out and disciple others and equip others for the Satanic attacks that will come along. If your heart is not yearning to preach the gospel to others and to study with them on a daily basis to equip them for the attacks that are inevitable, then Satan has already attacked and eaten his fill: of you! You are Satan's victim if you do not yearn to fight the devil! A few weeks ago, I encountered a demon in church. Yes. Satan was prowling right in our small chapel congregation. One of the members, a long-standing Christian of good repute became very argumentative and belligerent. I looked at him and said "Satan, in the name of Jesus Christ I command you to shut up!" The man immediately quit arguing and trying to bait me, and has long since returned to his old self. Other believers were amazed at the difference and have commented about the change in the man's behavior since I cast the demon out in Jesus's name. I am telling this so that readers know that evil is real. Satan is prowling and he is hungry. He will attack and he will attack soon. We must be prepared and we must help other Christians to prepare. We must study with others on a daily basis. Yes. Daily! Once a week is insufficient. The Christians in the early church met daily as shown in Acts 2:46-47. They knew that it required daily prayer, Bible study, and daily practice to equip them. The Bible is our sword and nobody ever fought with a sword who did not spend years practicing with that sword. If they did fight without training they were quickly defeated. Christianity takes daily exercise or we will become Satan's prey. Jesus said to take up our cross and He meant just that.  Prompt: "Hey everyoneI hope you are all well. Today cruising through the WDC galaxy we discovered a star that your Captain has never seen before but which has been around for awhile. winklett in the woods   writes of an uninvited guest (a memory it seems) in
I try not to get into these situations to begin with. The past and the future are no man's land for me. I am a recovering addict. I have found that I cannot stay clean if I have one foot in the past ruminating about "should've, would've and could've" and the other foot in tomorrow worryinmg about "what-if, how do I, and Why do I?" I can only survive by staying firmly planted in the present. Yes. I make plans and set goals. Yes. I rectify mistakes. I do all those things in the here and now. I do not have a time machine that will allow me to time travel. If I did have, when I got there to me it would still be the present. The present is called the present because like any present, it is a gift. I must make the best of it and appreciate it for what it is. Prompt: "You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly." — Sam KeenA lot of people get hung up with the imperfections. Are you one ? What's the best way to handle imperfection? Address it or ignore it." I do not do either when it comes to imperfection. I accept it instead. When I came to the point that I quit trying to change others and instead began to work on changing the imperfections others saw in me, I began to grow as a human being. All the anger and resentment that I held toward people melted away and flowed away like water. I get along with 99.99975 percent of the people I encounter today and all of them seem to like me. The tiny fraction I do not get along with I have to ask myself what I am doing wrong in the relationship. I usually find that the real problem lies in me and it is usually that I am unwilling to accept and love those people for the knuckleheaded idiots they choose to be. It is not my responsibility to change others or make them conform to my rules. It is my job to accept and love others for exactly who they are. If they are intolerable asses it is still my job to love them and accept them as intolerable asses. I do not have to hang with them. I do not try to change them and I certainly do not read their pedigree to them. I do not judge. I simply accept. Acceptance truly is the "answer to all my problems today," Alcoholics Anonymous page 417. When I find some person, place, thing, or situation, unacceptable to me I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being exactly the way it is. I do not get angry and try to change it unless it is a threat to my immediate safety or that of others. Many people are asses. I accept that that they are jerks and move on. Prompt: "What are your weekend plans?"I work five hours per day, seven days per week. I have no weekend.        |
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